Arts & Entertainment

Best Stage Production St. Louis 2007 - A Number

It was short: just 55 minutes. It was small: just one set and two actors. But the Rep Studio staging of A Number, Caryl Churchill's (hopefully not too) prophetic parable about the difficulty of "human" relationships in a futureworld where human cloning is a given, delivered a potent, enervating, exhilarating evening of theater that shone with the brilliance of a freshly cut gem. The production, directed with ferocity by Susan Gregg and attacked head-on by actors Anderson Matthews and Jim Butz, was tight, taut and altogether compelling. Viewers left the Studio feeling something we experience all too rarely at the theater these days: conviction. It was as if everyone involved  both on the stage and off  needed to tell this story.